Jarrang

13 November 2006

Jarrang limited was formed in March 2003 by Stafford Sumner.  The company provide email marketing solutions covering every aspect of email campaigns to help drive sales or build customer relationships.

Since moving to Cornwall the company has seen significant growth: their team now consists of five specialists and they are hoping to expand this to six in the near future. 

Jarrang are the ultimate example of a business maximising the opportunities created through broadband and flexible working.  They connected to broadband in 2005 and received a rebate from actnow towards their connection costs.

All of their staff work flexibly, to the gain of the company and their individual lives.  They have an office in Falmouth, which is shared with another company and because all of their staff are not usually in at any one time, the space they need is much smaller than the number of staff employed, hence reducing overheads. 

Stafford used to work in London, but as he says “I hated commuting because it is just ‘dead-time’. By cutting out the daily commute, I gain an additional 3 hours working time every day”.  He now comes into the office two to three times a week from his home in Helston.  Being a young ambitious guy, he likes to work hard and play hard and time is at a premium.

John, Jarrang’s finance brain, retired from banking in London and works part time four days a week.  John lives in the Lizard and comes into the office 1 day per week.  John says “My most productive time is early mornings, after which I like to take my dog for a walk and work in the garden if the weather permits!”  John is semi-retired and Jarrang were able to snag a man of his calibre because of their flexibility in working hours.

Mark, Jarrang’s developer has worked remotely for various companies for five years now and has even worked from New Zealand “Initially clients were very sceptical about me working remotely, “Oh Cornwall’s such a long way away”, they’d say. But I proved it could work and it gave me the opportunity to live in New Zealand for six months, on a British wage!”

Mark and his wife have recently had a baby and Mark is heavily involved in caring for his child.  He says “I go into the office one day per week and the rest of the time I share the childcare duties with my wife who also works flexibly from home as a freelance journalist”.

Stuart, Jarrang’s Marketing Specialist lives in Hertfordshire and used to commute into London every day but now he has the luxury of travelling at off peak times on cheaper tickets and only when needed.  Jarrang rent office meeting space by the hour in London as and when they need it or otherwise meet clients at their offices or in the more relaxed environment of a trendy coffee bar.

Theo, Jarrang’s technical specialist has moved from Cornwall to Southampton to study for a masters degree in electronic engineering.  Jarrang has retained Theo’s skills by allowing him to continue to work remotely for them two days per week and he is also on call to help during busy periods. 

Theo is at his most productive in the early hours of the morning: emails sent at 2am are a regular occurrence!  As part of Theo’s studies he took a short sabbatical from Jarrang to complete a three month placement working for a large corporate company.  Theo says “The daily 9 to 5 ritual was a real drag compared to the way I’m used to working”.

Jarrang are also hoping to take on a new member of the team who currently lives in Cornwall but works for a company in London who have requested him to relocate.  The inflexibility of one employer is likely to be the gain of Jarrang!

Stafford says “Whilst as a company we have embraced flexible working, I still believe sometimes nothing beats a face to face meeting and do travel to see clients when necessary.  The thing is I make the most of the travel time to work on the move, using my laptop and wireless broadband hotspots and 3G technology”.

Clearly, all of Jarrang’s staff are benefiting personally from flexible working arrangements, but what about the company?  Despite being primarily located in Cornwall, 70% of their business still comes from outside of Cornwall and overseas, and the company are looking to grow substantially:

Stafford says: “We’re absolutely serious about this business and have plans for global expansion.  We’re opening a regional office in Sydney to tap into the Asia-Pacific markets.  It will have a small office presence and will also allow us to turn-around client projects faster than before by taking advantage of time zone differences.  Everything will be linked to our UK operation through the use of cutting edge technology and services like VoIP to present a top class service interface to the world”.

And the bottom line?  Jarrang’s turnover has increased by 130% year on year and their plan for the next year shows further growth of 150%.

Stafford summarises: “Having flexible work policies and motivated employees has given Jarrang a competitive edge and allowed us to succeed in a very competitive marketplace.  Flexible working has created a win-win situation for us all”.